October 17, 2013: Hoffa and Hall are dishing out concessions as fast as employers can serve them up. After spending the summer cutting the healthcare of 140,000 UPS Teamsters, the Hoffa-Hall administration is now targeting Teamster pensions.

The Central States Pension Fund is lobbying Congress to eliminate key pension protections and give Central States the power to cut retirees' pensions.

Hoffa and Hall's standing with the members has never been lower. So how do they stay in office?

The $150,000 report explains part of the answer. A record 146 Teamster officials make more than $150,000 a year, and 137 get multiple Teamster salaries.

This patronage system gives Hoffa and Hall a national political machine to raise campaign funds and get out the vote at election time.

If Teamsters want to take back our union, we need a national network for the members—one that involves and unites rank-and-file members to organize for change in our locals and in the International union.

That's what TDU is all about.

It's not enough to get angry and active at contract time but then let everything go back to business as usual after the ballots are counted. We've got to get the reins of power out the hands of the concessions crew.

The next International Union election will kick off in less than two years with Convention Delegate races beginning in the Fall of 2015.

It will take 150,000 votes to win. That's an achievable goal, but it will take rank-and-file committees in local unions across the country  and a national organizaton that links us all together.

Change won't happen on its own. If we want to dump Hoffa and Hall, we have to build an organization to make it happen.

August 16, 2013: The organizers who work for the International Union have launched an online petition drive directed at the Hoffa administration.

The petition was launched on MoveOn.org and calls on the Hoffa administration and organizing director Jeff Farmer to bargain fairly with the union of IBT organizers and to maintain their present benefits and terms of employment.

Some organizers have been fired and have suits pending against the Hoffa administration. Fired organizer Tim Lewis won a judgment in June which, including his legal fees, will exceed $1.5 million.

That $1.5 million could have funded a lot of organizing drives. The court's docket summary of Tim Lewis v IBT (2011 CA 002773 B) can be found here.

Here is where you can read the petition and statement from the organizers.

August 16, 2013: In online discussion forums, many Teamsters are asking where Hoffa came from and how he became Teamster President. In response to members' questions, TDU is re-issuing two documents on the history of James Hoffa prior to his election as Teamster President.

These two thoroughly-researched documents were produced in 1996 for the Ron Carey Campaign. They document Hoffa's work and background over a long period of time. The facts in these reports have never been refuted.

The first is Jimmy Hoffa Junior: A Study of His Connections to Corrupt Elements in the Labor Movement. This documents Hoffa's cozy and profitable relationship with corrupt individuals and mob figures.

Hoffa has never been able to shake himself from this sordid history. As General President, he launched Project Rise to fight corruption. But his handpicked director, Ed Stier, resigned after Hoffa's office blocked his efforts to investigate corruption when it got close to Hoffa's key allies. "The problem is Hoffa," Stier said.

The second report is Hoffa Junior: His Record of Ties to Employers. This documents Hoffa's life-long record of siding with employers, for his own financial gain, and against Teamster members and other workers.

His recent dismal record of bargaining with UPS, ABF, UPS Freight, YRC, Republic Airways, and Gate Gourmet will be better understood if you read this history.

Feedback and questions regarding this material are welcome. Click here to send your comment or message to TDU.

August 15, 2013: There's a rerun election in the 5,000-member Local 848 in Los Angeles in progress, as a result of a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Labor Department due to serious election violations. The Labor Department is conducting the election.

The sad truth is, the exact same violations were brought before Joint Council 42, headed by International vice president Randy Cammack, and then to the International union. Instead of enforcing the members' right to a fair vote, JC 42 whitewashed the violations. Then the Hoffa administration did nothing.

The incumbents in the election had counted the votes of ineligible voters, and had illegally posted bulletins on union bulletin boards denouncing their opponents because they didn't like what their opponents said. On appeal, Hoffa told the local to take down the notices, but they left them up.

Those are clear violations of basic democracy. But Cammack and the Hoffa administration are more interested in keeping friends in office than fair elections.

August 14, 2013: After 8 months without a contract, Teamsters and UNITE HERE members at Gate Gourmet rejected a tentative agreement by the lopsided margin of 2,179 No to 742 Yes, in yet another national Hoffa-administration contract which the members think is a stinker.

The number one issue is wages. Yet IBT Local 528 in Atlanta, which represents a large number of Teamsters, says they will not pursue wage increases beyond what's been proposed but they will bargain to get one more sick day!

Gate Gourmet Teamsters prepare food for airlines where workers haven't had a raise since 2011. Other issues include unaffordable healthcare costs, too much overtime, supervisor harassment, and winning back double-time pay on seniority dates and birthdays, a concession from the 2010 negotiations.

The company and the union have jointly filed for federal mediation.

Click here to see CNN interview with Dan Moldea.

Also available: a review of the book "I Hear You Paint Houses" about the life, trials and corruption of Jimmy Hoffa.

May 24, 2013: "A nickel an hour for Teamster power" was Hoffa's slogan in 2002 to get the dues raised by 25 percent at a one-hour special convention in Las Vegas. A decade later, it's time to evaluate the organizing program: how are we doing at building Teamster power?

Very little of that new money goes to local unions; the bulk goes to the International, where it funds more staff salaries, as well as the strike fund and organizing.

Strikes are as rare as winners in Las Vegas. What about organizing? Are we building that promised Teamster power?

Our union needs to evaluate how we are doing in this critical work, and what the plan is for the future.

Numbers and Strategy

In 2012 the International union lost 51,936 members (according to LM-2 reports signed by James Hoffa and Ken Hall), worsening a downward trend of recent years and falling to 1.25 million members.

Also during 2012 our union was hit with the highest number of decertifications of any union, and lost 38 of those 51 votes where the boss was able to convince workers to leave the Teamsters.

Numbers matter. We can all agree we need to grow.

But strategy matters, too. We need to organize in Teamster core industries: trucking, warehousing, construction, and other areas to build Teamster power.

Does the International union have a strategy to organize in Teamster industries, or is the priority to get any members we can by the easiest route? This question needs to be addressed, with input from all locals.

Core Industries or Union Raids?

Teamster organizing in the waste industry has been aided by solidarity actions such as the rolling picket lines used in a strike against Republic Waste in April.

The IBT is organizing in the waste industry, where two huge corporations (Republic and Waste Management) control 80 percent of the market. This is the kind of strategy that we need to build Teamster power. And we need more coordinated action in waste, as we have seen recently, with quickie
solidarity strikes and coordinated bargaining.

But we don't see this model spreading to other core industries.

Right now, the IBT's biggest organizing priorities are two raids on other unions. The IBT is seeking to replace the Transport Workers Union (TWU) at American Airlines, and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) at US Air.

Dozens of Teamster organizers are on these drives, seeking to win over the mechanics at these two airlines. This means those organizers are not working on organizing elsewhere.

Perhaps those unions brought it on themselves by doing a poor job representing members, but are we building the labor movement this way? If the Teamsters win these campaigns, our union will grow, which is good, but by beating other unions, not organizing the unorganized.

Is this a Strategy?

Organizing at Conway or FedEx may be harder and long-term but they are critically important to the future of our union if we want to grow the membership, defend our contracts, and protect our benefits.

In the 1990s, our union took on an organizing drive at Overnite with this long view in mind.

It wasn't fast or easy. But we stuck with it and organized terminals and laid the groundwork for unionizing the company nationwide when it became UPS Freight.

Organizing is about long-term strategy—not chasing a quick fix.

Problems in the Organizing Department

Teamster organizing has been hindered by top officials who harassed IBT organizers who formed a union.This notice mandates the IBT officials to not threaten to pull the Teamster cards or lay-off organizers who sign a union card.

Funding for organizing has been cut in recent years, and the organizing staff reduced. The budget may be tight, but there seems to be plenty of money to maintain and expand multiple salaries.

Politics plays a heavy role in the IBT organizing department. Western Region organizing coordinator Manny Valenzuela has a checkered record on this score. For example, some five (!) former Teamster organizers he selected or trained now work as professional union busters! One of them, Sherri Henry, has a website advertising her sleazy work on defeating Teamster organizing drives. Should he be doing the hiring and coordinating?

It does not help that some top officials have antagonized and threatened some of the IBT's 40 full-time organizers. That's why a year ago, they voted to form a union despite heavy pressure from the Hoffa administration. They wanted protection against political firings and retaliation. A full year later, bargaining continues to try to settle the internal rift, pitting staff organizers against the top officials, including Organizing Director Jeff Farmer.

Various former organizers have lawsuits against the IBT for sexual harassment and other issues, costing upwards of a million dollars in legal fees and damages. Does this money come out of the organizing budget?

Turning into union busters, suing the IBT for sexual harassment, forming a union to prevent political firings: this does not sound like a well-run department.

It's time to make peace with the Teamster organizers and operate as a team and to rid the department of petty politics.

The Future of Organizing

The good news is that more locals, as well as the IBT, are committed to organizing as the lifeblood of the union. That's a positive foundation.

Now we need to take a hard look at how to grow in core industries and how to back up all locals who want to organize. Then we can build an effective and united organizing program with the International, the locals, and volunteer members.

January 23, 2013: The Independent Review Board (IRB) has sent a 141-page investigative report to Teamster president James Hoffa, calling for charges against the former top Teamsters in Minnesota, Brad Slawson Sr and Jr, along with their family friend and business partner, Todd Chester.

The IRB report, which is available here, alleges that both Brad Slawson Sr and Jr committed racketeering and bank fraud. While the IRB does not have the authority to bring criminal charges in federal court, the report is no doubt already in the hands of the Justice Department.

The Slawsons have bragged that they will return to the union hall. It now seems they should be less concerned about getting into the union hall than with staying out of federal housing-with-bars.

The Slawsons were removed from running the 11,000-member Minnesota Local 120 in November, when the IRB recommended that Hoffa place the local in trusteeship, which he then did.

The new IRB document covers much of the same material as the November IRB report, but now recommends that eleven specific charges be brought to expel the Slawsons from the Teamsters and bar them for life from the union. In addition to racketeering, the IRB alleges numerous acts of embezzlement totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, diversion of strike fund money, padding payments to a building contractor, violation of the bylaws, signing a sham collective bargaining agreement, and lying under oath.

From Minnesota Viking tickets to liquor sales to building a new union hall, it seems the opportunities to skim money were taken.

Slawson Sr and Jr were paid $469,228 in salaries and expenses in 2011 from the union treasury. The IRB report says they were embezzling a lot more for several years.

The IRB is jointly-appointed by the union leadership and the U.S. Justice Department, and responsible for investigating corruption within our union. The Hoffa administration is attempting to abolish it.

Background: Read Why Hoffa Won't Take on Corruption, IRB Hits Corruption in Local 120.

Further reading: Slawson Holds Fundraiser!

And: Teamsters accuse Minn. father, son of embezzlement

January 16, 2013: Once again a claim has been made regarding the location of Jimmy Hoffa's body in Michigan, some 38 years after his July 1975 murder. This time, it is from the one-time under-boss of the Detroit mafia, Tony Zerilli, so the FBI may be looking into it. Zerilli is claiming the body is on land owned by Jack Tocco, Zerilli’s cousin and enemy. And Zerilli is promising a forthcoming book (of course).

If you are interested in following this story, we suggest that your starting point can be www.moldea.com, the website of Dan Moldea, author of the The Hoffa Wars.

October 19, 2012: The 6,000 members of Los Angeles Local 630 have spoken loud and clear in rejecting Hoffa's appointed Trustee of the local, Randy Korgan, as well as candidates supported by the corrupt former local officers.

Will Hoffa let the membership vote stand, or will he pull a "do-over" even though his appointee, Korgan, ran the election. This undemocratic tactic has been used by Hoffa before.

Korgan, a close associate of International Vice President Randy Cammack of Local 63, was appointed Trustee to come in and run Local 630 when it was put in trusteeship in 2011. Korgan is known more for his threats than respect for members.

Another slate was backed by former Local 630 leader Paul Kenny, who was bounced from office in 2011 after the Independent Review Board (IRB) caught him embezzling $1,000 a week by spending the members' money at fancy bars. That slate finished third.

The winning candidate was Ernie Lopez, on a slate headed by two business agents and rank and file members of Local 630.

The members of Local 630—mostly grocery warehouse workers—deserve a new day. For years they have endured heavy-handed leaders who thought they owned the union. Kenny even testified that the former head of the local signed it over to him, from his deathbed, like personal property.

The Hoffa administration knew about the embezzlement, as proved by letters from International Auditors detailing it. But Hoffa tolerated it. TDU reported on that, click here to read it.

The hard-working members of Local 630 deserve help and support from the International union, not yet another slap in the face.